GENEVA (Reuters) – Another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said, as a combination of technical, political and security issues were hindering deliveries.
“We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We’re expecting another eight or so today,” Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva.
Hastings said detailed negotiations were taking place with Israel in a bid to secure more humanitarian crossings in the densely populated enclave, which has been hit by unrelenting air strikes that have killed thousands in response to surprise attacks by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7.
“In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well,” Hastings said. “And there’s a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics.”
There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there.
Officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid.
“We are aware of the 1,000 patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs,” Hastings said.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Emma Farge; Editing by Friederike Heine and Miranda Murray)
